Wal-Mart, the US’ largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVDs must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry. “We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart,” said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart’s board.In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Breyer, who is also a partner in a venture capital firm. The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby. Wal-Mart is scarcely alone in its concern.As Google increasingly becomes the starting point for finding information and buying products and services, companies that even a year ago did not see themselves as competing with Google are beginning to view the company with some angst — mixed with admiration. Google’s recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications. Businesses already feeling the Google effect include advertising, software and the news media. Apart from retailing, Google’s disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales.Google, the reigning giant of Web search, could extend its economic reach in the next few years as more people get high-speed Internet service and cellphones become full-fledged search tools, according to analysts. And ever-smarter software, they say, will cull and organise larger and larger digital storehouses of news, images, real estate listings and traffic reports, delivering results that are more like the advice of a trusted human expert.Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring “a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere.” That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers. But it would also reward consumers with lower prices and open up opportunities for new companies. Google, then, may turn out to have a more far-reaching impact than earlier Web winners like Amazon and eBay. “Google is the realization of everything that we thought the Internet was going to be about but really wasn’t until Google,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School.Google, to be sure, is but one company at the forefront of the continuing spread of Internet technology. It has many competitors, and it could stumble. In the search market alone, Google faces rivals like Microsoft and Yahoo.Microsoft, in particular, is pushing hard to catch Google in Internet search. “This is hyper-competition, make no mistake,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chief executive. “The magic moment will come when our search is demonstrably better than Google’s,” he said, suggesting that this could happen in a year or so.But Google’s current lineup of offerings includes: software for searching personal computer files; an e-mail service; maps; satellite images; instant messaging; blogging tools; a service for posting and sharing digital photos; and specialized searches for news, video, shopping and local information.Google’s most controversial venture, Google Print, is a project to copy and catalog millions of books; it faces lawsuits by some publishers and authors who say it violates copyright law. Google, which tends to keep its plans secret, certainly has the wealth to fund ambitious ventures.Its revenues are growing by nearly 100 per cent a year, and its profits are rising even faster. Its executives speak of the company’s outlook only in broad strokes, but they suggest all but unlimited horizons. “We believe that search networks a industries remain in their nascent stages of growth with great forward potential,” Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, told analysts. — NYT
